Vistamare is pleased to present La forma si trasforma, Mario Airò’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.
The title is taken from a children “pop up” book, where what matters is to spark splendor through the transformation of the image, from geometric to “fascinating”, a universe that is different from Mario’s rigour, yet contiguous.
In the exhibition a series of recent and most historical works by Airò are in dialogue with works by Giovanni Anselmo, Ettore Spalletti, Haim Steinbach and Jan Vercruysse, whose work has played a significant role in Airò’s artistic career.
This comparison between works and authors is not self-celebratory, but wants to highlight the ability of the artist’s predecessors, some of whom became his closest companions throughout the years, to bring new lifeblood, semantic and existential richness to the “ruptures” and disruptive breaks that History had placed in their hands.
Mario Airò was born in Pavia in 1961. He studied in Milan with Luciano Fabro and, in the mid 90s he opened, with other artists, a self-managed space at Via Lazzaro Palazzi. In 1997 he took part at the 47th Venice Biennale, at the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow and in 2005 at the Kwangju Biennale. He has been the subject of many solo exhibitions and his work has been featured in group exhibitions at numerous institutions worlwide, including GAM, Turin; Kunsthalle, Lophem; Palazzo della Triennale, Milan; Galleria Nazionale di Parma-Palazzo della Pilotta; Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genova. His works have been shown, among others, at Castello di Rivoli, al Museum of Contemporary Art di Tokyo e allo S.M.A.K. di Ghent. Airò’s work is in the collections of many institutions, including MAXXI, Castello di Rivoli, GNAM Roma, MAMbo, Museion Bolzano. He currently lives and works in Milan.